With our flight to the USA coming up in just a few days, we are in the midst of saying our goodbyes—not only to our Awa friends, but also to our coworkers and Ecuadorian friends. In a Latin culture, it is quite offensive to leave without saying a proper goodbye, so we are trying hard to do it right and hurt as few feelings as we can. J Leaving the Awa believers was especially hard for us. Even though the Awa heartily dislike showing strong emotions, many had tears in their eyes last Sunday as they said their goodbyes. Because they have such a difficult time handling these feelings, I think they actually feel a little upset with us for causing them to feel such sadness! While we look forward to seeing friends and family in the USA during this year of furlough, part of our hearts will definitely stay here with the country and people we have come to love.
Changes are in store for the Awa communities while we are gone! Construction is quickly moving forward on the bridge over the RV river, and the workers estimate that it will be done in about five months. At that point the road will continue further interior. At the same time, the Awa are carrying heavy loads of electric poles (made from a PVC pipe-type material, but still over 200 lbs each!), transformers, and wire up into the communities all along the main trail. There should be electricity in our community in just a few months! We can hardly imagine what it will be like to come back to both a road and electric service at the Outpost! These changes bring both good and bad influences for the people as the first electric items that most buy are televisions and dvd players, along with an abundance of videos full of violence and poor morals. Cultural change comes very quickly because these isolated people consider such movies to reflect life in the modern world, which they long to be a part of. With the road also comes easy access to alcoholic beverages. At the tiny community center of RV, there are already three bars/cantinas in place! Please remember the Awa believers as they learn to deal with these influences. Discernment only comes by God’s grace in their lives.
We are sorry to have been out of touch over the last eight weeks! Our not-that-old laptop computer bit the dust, leaving us hanging. I have finally been able to resurrect the hard drive and we have our email address list back. J We are thankful to have communications up and running again (even temporarily on a loaner computer)! For those of you who we have kept in the dark, our plans include flying into St. Louis the 10th (this week!) and then heading west/north to see Kathy’s sisters, and then on to New Hampshire. Our three weeks in New England will be a little rushed, as we need to be on the road again by mid-August so we can drop Kenny off at the Bible Institute in Wisconsin. In September, we hope to head back to New England (from Oklahoma) by way of any of you who would like us to drop in! At this point, we can be reached best by way of email. As soon as we have some type of phone number, we will let you know. For the fall and winter we plan to settle in New Hampshire. We are still sorting out where we will live, but we praise the Lord for His provision of a Grand Caravan van loaned to us by a wonderful organization that loans vehicles to missionaries (Righteous Rides)!
Many thanks for your prayers for us!
In Christ,
Kevin & Kathy
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